Welsh Centre for Tourism Research (WCTR)

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Established in 2001, it is one of the Cardiff Metropolitan University's recognized centres of research excellence and the only UK research centre of its kind to be rated as producing world-leading and internationally excellent research.

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The WCTR continues from the 2008 RAE success with another strong performance in the 2014 Research Excellence Framework (REF). The WCTR was the top ranked Tourism submission in the UK with 40% of our overall submission classified as world leading or 4* and 87% of our overall submission being classified as world leading (4*) or internationally excellent (3*). In terms of outputs, a quarter (24%) were ranked as 4* and 56% were ranked as 3*, making 80% of our outputs either world leading or internationally excellent. In terms of our average GPA, we rank ahead of all of our major competitors with a GPA of 3.25.

Here at the WCTR we are committed to theoretically-informed research and consultancy that engages with practice and policy. Our researchers are largely drawn from the Cardiff School of Management's Department of Tourism, Hospitality and Events Management including a Reader in Tourism and Management, Dr Claire Haven-Tang. The Centre is also home to over 20 doctoral students, a suite of international research projects, four Honorary Professors (Tom Baum, Conrad Lashley, Stephen Page and Brian Wheeler) and one Emeritus Professor (David Botterill). We regularly host visiting scholars from universities we partner with from across the world.

Staff from the WCTR have undertaken significant consultancy projects, including a review of Wales' Major Events Strategy for the Welsh Government (2012), event evaluation and toolkit development for Monmouthshire County Council (2015-16), an economic impact study of the UEFA Champions League Final for the Football Association of Wales (June 2017) and an analysis of the Welsh food supply chain. Colleagues have been partners in two European projects - a £1.7 million multi-institution research project on tourism and events in northern regions funded by the Norwegian Research Council (2013-2016) and a £117,000 Erasmus+ Project on Co-operating for Leadership in Tourism involving partners from the University of Malta (2015-17). We are delighted to be a partner in the Erasmus+ Next Tourism Generation project starting in January 2018 (€409,000). Staff are involved with the Editorial or Editorial Advisory Boards of a range of journals, including Leisure Studies, International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, Annals of Tourism Research and are also involved with subject associations, such as the Association for Tourism in Higher Education (ATHE), the Association for Events Management Education (AEME) and the Council of Hospitality Management Education (CHME).

We welcomed the Annual Conferences for the Association for Tourism in Higher Education (ATHE) in December 2016 and the Association for Events Management Education (AEME) in July 2017. These subject association conferences build on our track record of hosting major international conferences as well as an ESRC Seminar Series on Tourism and Social Justice in conjunction with the University of the West of England and the University of Stirling, Scotland. Currently we are preparing to co-host the 11th International Conference on Culinary Arts and Science, with us in the summer of 2019.

Staff from the WCTR have a diverse range of research interests under the tourism, hospitality and events banner, which explore the wider socio-cultural, economic and spatial roles of the tourism, hospitality and events sectors. These research interests include: project management applications within tourism contexts which can help to address adverse impacts and increase viability of tourism opportunities in local destinations; destination development and Sense of Place; rural and event tourism; digital tourism; human resource development issues; the social construction and consumption of contemporary festival experiences and event spaces and the role of the media; social justice and inclusion of vision impaired people in tourism; the 'tourist gaze'; issues of embodiment, gender and tourism for all; socio-cultural interaction with wine and related consumer behaviour; motivators for trans-national education; the meaning and significance of tourism in the lives of marginalised and under-empowered groups; gay and lesbian tourism; power in social inclusion processes; gender inequality in elite culinary arts.

Our research publications, projects, conferences and seminars are driven by four research active groups that sit under the Welsh Centre for Tourism Research. Each Research Group consists of core members of the WCTR and, each of the group's research activities often cut across each other to create a dynamic and integrated research environment. The Research Groups are: